


Visitor

by Squirrel_Stone



Series: Infinite AUs and Outtakes [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: AU of an AU, F/M, Infinity Gems, Jane is creepy, Loki has a change of heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 03:24:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4288875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squirrel_Stone/pseuds/Squirrel_Stone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki is supposed to be alone in his cell in the helicarrier. <i>Supposed</i> to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Visitor

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU from my Infinity verse, but you don't have to read it to know what's going on. It's mostly just a what-if I came up with while trying to work on another fic.

“Why are you doing this?”

Loki spun around to see a woman in his cell with him, leaning against the curved wall. Her hair was a mess, all tangled and curly and with a braided crown to make it look a little more orderly, and she wore a pale blue t-shirt that went down to her knees as a dress. It was Thor’s woman, but she certainly wasn’t dressed as he had seen her through the eyes of the Destroyer. Loki let himself stare for a moment until the woman spoke once more.

“Allow me to repeat myself: why? Are you doing this?” she asked, eyebrows raised slightly, lips pursed together, waiting for an explanation. She reminded Loki of Frigga when she was scolding him and Thor for doing something they all knew they shouldn’t have been doing.

Loki scoffed, played it off like the sudden, impossible appearance of the woman hadn’t startled him. “Humans like yourself deserve no more than to be ruled,” he sneered. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Jane stared him down for a moment, like she was searching through his mind and picking out all the details she wanted to use in her argument. Finally, she replied, “Because you don’t want to hurt anyone.”

That comment actually managed to pull a real laugh from Loki. “I’ve already killed dozens; do you really think I’m concerned about the mortality rate?” he asked.

“Yes,” Jane answered immediately. She paused before continuing, and once more Loki felt like she was digging into his mind. “But you also think that if you weren’t leading this invasion, it would be much higher.” She paused, waiting for Loki to respond, but he said nothing. She’d taken him off guard, and even his silver tongue couldn’t recover from her assault. Eventually, she sighed and straightened her back, pushing herself off the wall and walking towards the other side of the cell, one foot in front of the other in a slow waltz. “If it’s any consolation, you’re right,” she tells him. “Thanos would burn this realm to the ground.”

Loki followed the woman with his eyes, wary of her every move. He swallowed hard, his suspicions being confirmed with every word Jane spoke. “How do you know of Thanos?” he asked. “Who are you?”

The brunette stared out the glass wall, watching a few high clouds pass by the window beyond. Her response, like those before it, was slow, calculated. “You referred to me in your mind as ‘Thor’s woman,’” she declared. It wasn’t accusatory or angry, just a statement of the facts. “Will that not suffice?”

“It won’t,” Loki replied. He scoffed a little and crossed his arms, looking more like a frustrated child than a would-be king. “You obviously know of my true nature, so you must know that I am interested in befriending my brother’s lover, regardless of the uncertain terms I am on with him.”

Jane tsked a few times and turned her head a little to look at him. “Your lies aren’t as good as they used to be,” she declared, looking back to the window. She tilted her head as a hawk flew by, and while the irony wasn’t lost on Loki, he didn’t particularly care about it at the time.

“It’s not a lie.” His voice was filled with anger and frustration. He was used to people looking at him and never knowing what he truly thought, but this mortal was calling him out left and right without missing a beat.

“It’s not the whole truth either,” Jane countered simply. “You don’t want to know _who_ I am; you want to know _what_ I am. And of course all the questions that go along with it: how I got in your cell, how I got on the helicarrier in the first place, how I read your mind…” She turned to face Loki and leaned back against the glass again. “I’ll answer the who: Jane Foster.”

Loki practically snorted. “The name does not inspire fear.” _Her words did._ He uncrossed his arms, a small smirk on his face. “But it is disarming, I’ll give you that. So now for the what.” He raised an eyebrow like he was waiting for an answer.

Jane smiled back at Loki. “We’ve met twice before,” she claimed. “Once when Odin asked you to hide me away in a little town in Norway, once when you stole me back from S.H.I.E.L.D.” A sly little smile appeared on her face as she waited for Loki to make the connection. She had the time, but it didn’t take long.

Loki’s smirk fell gradually, revealing blatant shock and awe. There was no way… she couldn’t possibly be…

“Surely Papa Odin must have told you the Infinity Stones were sentient,” Jane taunted. “Then again, that would make it more of an ethical dilemma to lock me away.” She shrugged and crossed her arms, allowing her to more fully relax against the glass wall.

“You… you’re…” Loki couldn’t find it in himself to form the words. Instead he just stared on, jaw hanging open slightly.

Jane chuckled a little. “You were a far better conversationalist 600 years ago,” she joked. That all-knowing smirk that was usually on Loki’s face had taken up residence with Jane, and Loki did _not_ like how it felt to be on the other side of that.

Suddenly, the door to the cell opened, and Loki turned to see ten guns aimed at him. He glanced back at Jane, and a tiny laugh escaped him. She had intentionally positioned herself so Loki would have to turn around to face her, looking away from the door. That devious smile on her face disappeared when he took a step to the side, allowing the agents to see Jane.

“Dr. Foster, come forward,” Fury ordered. “Has Loki in any way—”

“No,” Jane cut the man off, looking to Loki and refusing to move. She just remained leaning against the back of the cell, watching the agents. “I was just having a conversation with an old friend.” She looked to Loki, then back to Fury. Her eyes were cold and angry, and she told the man, “I’d like to speak with Thor.”

Fury muttered something about “goddamn difficult scientists” before answering, “You can as soon as you leave the cell.”

Jane narrowed her eyes. “I think I’m safer in here,” she replied. She shifted her weight so she was standing up straighter, and she tilted her head. “Let me see Thor.”

There was a moment of silence as Fury tried to assess Jane. Her eyes were normal, so she wasn’t being controlled by the scepter, but there were still a number of things that could have been wrong. Starting with the fact that she felt safer in a cell with Loki than she did anywhere else on the helicarrier with a bunch of agents. “Fine,” he agreed, taking a few steps back. He looked to one of the agents and ordered, “Watch them.”

The door was closed, and Jane let out a sigh of relief, letting her head fall back and hit the glass. “Not. One. Word,” she grit out, already knowing what Loki had in his head.

Loki lifted his hands defensively and shook his head. “I wasn’t going to say anything,” he assured her. “Except maybe how it’s funny that you’re so afraid of them when we both know what you can do.”

“What I’ve done,” Jane corrected, turning her head to look at her cellmate. “And what I’ll gladly do again if you continue to speak.” There was a bit of mirth in her voice, but Loki didn’t doubt her words.

With a sigh, Loki leaned against the wall and looked down at his feet. He understood what it was like to be used, manipulated, and twisted beyond recognition for others’ desires; he wasn’t about to judge.

Jane didn’t even look up when Thor came in, Mjolnir in hand, ready to take down anyone who threatened his love. Instead, she just started talking. “Have they told you about Phase II?” she asked. “They’re using the Tesseract to create weapons. It’s killing her.”

Loki’s head shot up at Jane’s last sentence. Yes, he’d known that being used to make weaponry like that was hurting the Tesseract, but he hadn’t imagined it was killing her.

“HYDRA did it, and now S.H.I.E.L.D.’s doing it,” Jane continued, her voice soft and low. She was actually starting to sound as sick as she claimed S.H.I.E.L.D. was making her. “Nearly a hundred years of her fighting back, trying to prevent people from getting hurt. Everyone wants to rule the world, and they don’t care if they murder the one allowing them to thrive.”

Thor walked up to the door of the cell, confusion written all over his face. “Lady Jane, I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” he confessed. He was trying his hardest, that much was clear, but he just wasn’t getting it.

Slowly, Jane lifted her head, allowing her hair to fall away from her face. She was pale, paler than she had been even minutes ago, and she looked like a strong breeze could knock her over. “Thor, I’m the Tesseract, and S.H.I.E.L.D. is killing me. I need to stay near Loki because he was the last one to come into contact with my true form.” She swallowed hard and walked over to the door, shaking as she lowered herself to sit on the ground. Thor squatted down so he was at eye level with her, and she smiled a little, a real smile this time. “I love you,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “But I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna live with S.H.I.E.L.D. making all those weapons.”

“I will stop them,” Thor promised. “I…” He swallowed hard, trying to digest the information. “I may not understand all that is happening, but I will do my best to remedy the situation. I will return as soon as I can.” He looked up at Loki, eyes wet from tears that threatened to fall. “Brother, I know we have had our differences in the past, but—”

“I will protect her,” Loki promised, walking up to Jane and getting on the ground next to her, checking her over. Her appearance made much more sense now. A t-shirt as a dress and tangled hair were typical, he assumed, of Midgardians when they were sick. He knew that when he was sick he wanted to just wear pajamas and not worry about his personal hygiene, but he’d always had servants to care about it for him.

Jane whimpered slightly, and when Loki put a hand against her head, he realized she was burning up. He looked to Thor. “You should hurry.”

* * *

 

Thor walked up to Fury as he spoke to the Avengers, and without a second thought, he grabbed the man and threw him into a wall. There were objections all around, but Thor just walked up to the man and towered over him. “Shut down Phase II!” he ordered.

“You’re out of line,” Fury growled as he got to his feet. “You shouldn’t even know what Phase II is.” He narrowed his eye at the blond god. “How do you know about it?”

“My Lady Jane told me,” Thor explained, his voice still louder than normal from his anger. “You are using the Tesseract to create weapons with complete disregard for her health.” His free hand curled into a fist, and he struggled not to hit Fury again. He scoffed. “Had you actually attempted to understand her rather than just weaponize her, she might have actually helped. She certainly wouldn’t have let herself be stolen from you.”

Fury looked completely dumbfounded, mouth slightly ajar and eye screwed up in confusion. “What are you talking about!?” he snapped. “The Tesseract is a _thing_ , Thor!”

That earned him a fist to the jaw, and Fury was out like a light. He turned back to the team. “I know that we have not gotten off on the best foot, but we must destroy all Phase II weapons as quickly as possible, before Lady Jane’s health deteriorates further. If she dies… then my brother shall be the least of our worries,” he explained. “I ask for an act of faith as I have no physical proof, but I _know_. The Tesseract is sentient, and these weapons are killing her.”

There was some hesitation before the other four began to nod.

Thor ran back to the cell room and knocked out the guards without a second thought, breaking their weapons over his knee. He pressed a button he’d seen Fury use, and the cell door opened. Loki lifted Jane effortlessly and carried her out.

“You know I could have gotten out myself,” Loki teased. A second later, he was serious again. “I have called off the attack I had planned for this ship and instead ordered the Tesseract be brought here. Hopefully being in close proximity to her true form will allow your beloved to heal.”

Thor smiled gratefully. “I knew you would not truly wish harm to Midgard,” he declared. There was a light in his eyes for his brother that hadn’t been there in over a year. For the first time in just as long, Loki had no intentions to extinguish it. “We must find a place where Lady Jane will be safe and hide her there while we destroy the rest of the weaponry.”

“Leave that to me,” Loki assured Thor. “I know how much you care for her, and I will not let her fall in harm’s way.”

There was a short nod between the two, and they were off in separate directions, Thor to destroy more weapons and Loki to hide Jane.

It wasn’t long before the team found the weapons stash, and a few well-placed hits was all it took to remove the little armory from existence. The six headed back to the conference room to see Jane sitting in a chair, Clint across from her, and the Tesseract on the table.

“The mind is not my specialty,” Jane warned Clint as she lifted a hand next to his temple. “This will hurt.” Clint just closed his eyes, and Jane let strings of blue light come out of her fingers and lightly touch Clint’s head.

Clint cried out, falling out of his chair, but when he opened his eyes, they were back to normal. He blinked a few times and groaned before seeing that they had company. “Hey there,” he choked out. “So… end of the world averted?” His voice had that dry humor he was known for, even as another moan escaped him. “Please tell me end of the world averted. I think I need to nap for a week.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sassy lines from Clint are a great way to end any fic. XD


End file.
